Mental Health and the effects of Homophobia, Biphobia & Transphobia
This is the first week of LGBTQ+ Pride Month!
I’d like to take the opportunity to discuss the impact of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia on the mental health of the LGBTQ+ community. Now, it’s well known that those who identify as LGBTQ+ suffer from higher levels of mental health difficulties. Indeed, Stonewall₁ found in 2018 that over half of LGBT people had experienced depression in the previous year and that a little under half of trans people had thought about suicide compared to 31% of cis LGBT women and men. These just provide a snapshot of a complex situation and I will further explore this in this post.
It should be noted that this does not aim to be an education in what constitutes homophobia, biphobia or transphobia so I have written on the assumption that you have at least a vague knowledge of each of these.
Homophobia is still alive and well in developed countries like the UK today. The form of homophobia that most of us think of initially is that which is directed at others. Gay men are more likely to drop out of sports compared to straight men out of fear of being bullied and from pressure to take part in typically masculine sports₂. This comes as no surprise to those of us in the community really. The impact on mental health of things like this is both direct from having experienced or living in the fear of experiencing homophobic bullying and indirect since exercise is such a powerful tool to ensuring our good mental health.
Homophobic views can get internalised and people then end up trying to hide, disprove or cure themselves of their same sex attraction. This is particularly heart-breaking, in my opinion, and the impact that this can have on a person’s mental health is great. Depression, lack of self esteem, self harm and suicide. It makes sense that some people develop internalised homophobia when you consider how often they can be completely surrounded by those types of messages.
It isn’t just in adult sports that homophobic bullying causes a problem. A recent study₃ that found homophobic bullying in childhood left the individual with more severe depression, anxiety and pain as they entered adulthood. The CDC also note that people who experience same sex attraction are more likely to be rejected by their families which can result in higher levels of depression and suicide.
It’s quite a grim picture when you think about it, isn’t it?
It certainly isn’t just the people who only experience same sex attraction that get a raw deal.
Bisexuals make up the majority of the LGB community and while they can experience homophobia as well, they also get hit with biphobic attitudes. In fact, bisexuals receive almost equal amounts of discrimination from the gay community and the straight community₄. Furthermore, the rates of intimate partner violence are greater for bisexual people than gay people of the same gender. Biphobia can make people question their identity and whether they may actually be gay or straight (both of these being more socially acceptable than being bi)₅. There are higher rates of depression and anxiety in the bisexual community than the gay community along with higher rates of suicide than gays and lesbians. Considering all of this, it’s a scary finding that 1 in 5 bisexual people have experienced microagressions in therapy₆. It seems like it doesn’t take a huge intervention to improve a therapists competence, however, I don’t think that bisexual people looking for help should be the ones triggering that learning experience.
You should already clearly see why I am passionate about serving the LGBTQ+ community, one which I have been a part of for most of my life.
Trans people are subject to greater stigma, prejudice and discrimination and worse health outcomes than cisgendered people. You really don’t have to look far in our world to find people preaching about “real” men/women and worse. I know you’ve seen them. Can you imagine how rejecting, invalidating and othering that must be to experience as a trans person? They are also subject to dead naming (use of the person’s birth name after they have changed their name to something in line with their gender identity) and deliberate misgendering (deliberate use of the wrong pronouns) both of which contribute to the feelings of rejection and invalidation. Trans people are at greater risk of depression, self harm, suicide, anxiety and psychological distress₇,₈. There’s some evidence that gender affirming surgeries help reduce some of the mental health problems experienced by trans people₉. Though it should be noted that not all trans people wish to go down this route and that the surgeries do not solve all the trouble trans people face with regard to their mental health or the treatment they receive from others.
There’s so much suffering here in the LGBTQ+ community and this is even in developed countries which like to portray themselves as being accepting and supportive. The suffering does not come from being LGBTQ+. Rather it comes from the stigma, prejudice & discrimination that LGBTQ+ people face from society that causes the suffering.
Wouldn’t the world be better if we were accepting of each other - regardless of whether they are like us or not?
Wouldn’t it be good for everyone if our neighbourhoods, villages, towns, cities and countries were safe - regardless of a person’s gender identity or sexual orientation?
Wouldn’t it be great if we all decided we wanted to heal ourselves and each other?
I know you agree with me when I answer “yes” to all of the above questions.